If you’re familiar with creepypasta, chances are that you’ve encountered stories about Slender Man multiple times. Even if you’re not, most people who grew up on the internet have seen the image at least once. A tall, thin figure in a black suit with unusually long limbs and no face, standing just far enough in the background to make you question whether he was always there.
It’s hard not to recognize Slender Man immediately if you’re a horror fan. However, his story was never fully clear, and as a result, people developed various theories, legends, and versions of who he actually was. These days, his influence has expanded to various places on the internet, including dungeon crawlers like Dark and Darker, where players buy Dark and Darker gold to survive eerie underground worlds. But the story of Slender Man itself is still one of the best examples of how a simple online creation can grow into something much bigger.
In this article, we’ll uncover who created Slender Man and where the idea behind this character originates from.
He Was Created for a Photoshop Contest
Believe it or not, Slender Man didn’t begin with a mysterious disappearance, as most horror stories do, or a legend that was passed down for generations. The thing about creepypastas is that they usually start in a simple, ordinary way. And that’s how Slender Man originates.
In fact, he was created for a Photoshop contest on the Something Awful forum in June 2009. The contest was about taking ordinary photographs and editing them to make something paranormal out of them. The basic idea was to produce the most convincing fake supernatural photographs.
For this, a user named Eric Knudsen (who was posting under the pseudonym Victor Surge) uploaded two black-and-white images that featured groups of children. In the background, you could see a tall, thin, faceless figure in a dark suit. The pictures had text alongside that described missing children and a photographer who was never found. And the story was born.
What Inspired Eric Knudsen?
Although there was no official winner, Knudsen’s entry became far more famous than the contest itself. The author of one of the two photographs is still unknown. The only thing we know according to forums is Knudsen’s fictional captions that said the photographer of one image was unknown, while the second was supposedly taken in 1986 by someone named Mary Thomas.
However, neither Mary Thomas nor the events described in the captions were real. Knudsen invented these details to make the photographs look like pieces of evidence to convince people it was really a forgotten crime case.
To add even more mystery, he created the name “Slender Man” himself and used it in the caption beneath the second image. The fact that the name, as well as the figure itself, was so simple is probably one of the main reasons why it worked. It described the figure without explaining what he was, where he came from, or what he wanted.
It’s hard to say what exactly inspired Knudsen to create this memorable character. All we know is that later he mentioned H. P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, William S. Burroughs, and horror games such as Silent Hill and Resident Evil. In addition, he mentioned the influence of Zack Parsons’ That Insidious Beast, Stephen King’s The Mist, Mothman, and the Mad Gasser of Mattoon. Apparently, he got inspiration from several familiar stories to create Slender Man.
How Other People Expanded the Story
The creepypasta enthusiasts didn’t need much to take the story to the next level. In fact, that’s another thing that makes Slender Man so unusual – Eric Knudsen didn’t build the legend alone. The rest of the myth was created by other forum users who immediately started adding their own images and backstories.
As a result, the story quickly spread over the internet on Tumblr, YouTube, DeviantArt, and Creepypasta. Hundreds of people kept on adding new details, discussed his origins, and tried to somehow invent details that would make sense. One user even invented a story connecting Slender Man to 16th-century Germany, where he was known as “Der Großmann.” This idea is still used as evidence sometimes that the character comes from German folklore, but actually, the original story appeared only after Knudsen’s original posts.
How Slender Man Became an Internet Legend
Not surprisingly, the story quickly moved from forums into video games, films, television, and mainstream internet culture. Today, Slender Man is no longer just a character known by Creepypasta fans. Even people who have never read the original posts or have even never heard of creepypasta can recognize his dark suit, long limbs, and blank face.
One reason for this popularity was that Slender Man could fit almost anywhere. He appeared in the YouTube series Marble Hornets, inspired games such as Slender: The Eight Pages and Slender: The Arrival, and even influenced Minecraft’s Enderman. And in 2018, even a movie called Slender Man reached the cinema.
We can certainly say that Slender Man today is an internet legend and perhaps one of the clearest examples of how online communities can turn a simple idea into something much bigger. Eric Knudsen created the appearance and name, but thousands of fans gave the character new stories, abilities, and supposed histories.
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